


Opposites Attract

by Skyepilot



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Daisy seducing Coulson a bit, F/M, Feelings, Flirting, Friends to Lovers, Future Fic, Humor, Kissing, Opposites Attract, Romance, Sappy, Silly, Simmons thinking Phil is too old for Daisy, Slow Dancing, Spycraft, Tropes, Unresolved Sexual Tension, supportive friendships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-24
Updated: 2016-03-24
Packaged: 2018-05-28 17:15:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6338017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyepilot/pseuds/Skyepilot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Future-fic drabble where Daisy and Coulson dance and flirt on opposite sides politically, but are still working together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Opposites Attract

“You look…good.”

Her arms circle around the back of his neck, drawing him in closer to her.

“Mmm.”

He gives her a confident smirk that throws her off a bit.

She half-watches his hand slide down the middle of her back, as he turns her, landing on the skin where the black crepe fabric of her dress dips at the waist.

“Watch the hands, Phil.”

She says it through a careful smile, pointedly, but pulls back, setting her hands on his shoulders, still keeping things light.

He reaches up to politely take her by the wrist with his left hand and assumes a more formal posture.

“What kind of guy do you take me for?” he asks, with a coy expression. “I’ve just slipped a listening device…into your dress,” he goes on, breaking up the words carefully for any of the lip-readers in the room. “Which, of course, won’t work. Because you’ll find it.”

“I’m so flattered,” she replies in a low tone, fitting her body closer to his. “That you think I’m the kind of agent that wouldn’t notice.”

“You’re hurting my feelings,” he says playfully, putting his cheek against hers.  “It’s worked before.”

She can feel his mischievous smile and it’s almost enough to throw her off, to make her want to pull him tightly into something more familiar.  Like a hug, pressed all the way against him this time.

She’s missed him _that_ much.

Still, this is a mission.

“Did you know there are several cases in the SSR files SHIELD kept on poison lipstick?” she begins, leaning in closer to his ear.

“No,” he says, missing a step for a moment, as she just misses his foot with her heel. “Do tell.”

“Russian. Part of the old Black Widow program,” she goes on, leading him for a moment.

Her slow smile lets her mouth brush against his earlobe, and a shudder travels down through his whole body, almost imperceptibly.

 _If_ she didn’t have the benefit of sensing vibrations.

He hides it well, but she touches her fingers against the hair on the back of his neck to steady him nonetheless.  
  
“Oh. Yes. _That_.” He smiles back, his voice trembling now that his body isn’t, and lets his arms settle on her waist.  
  
“But, the night's still young.”

They move together for a moment in a holding pattern, an awkward silence between them as they cross the floor to the elegant chamber music.

The expected sort of thing people who host diplomatic affairs like to arrange for an evening like this.  Something old and civilized, even though they both know that’s far from what this all is.  
  
“You wouldn't do that, would you?” He asks her, tension trapped in the tone of his voice.  
  
“I don't know, that all depends on what you do.”

He finds it hard to not glance around them now, knowing that HYDRA and government and Inhuman operatives are watching every movement, the shape of each word forming on their lips.

They should be enemies, after all. Human and Inhuman.

When they meet like this, they usually exchange tense words, sometimes coded, sometimes not.  Trying to pass information between them in the hopes that they can come back together again.

This, though, is new.

It’s classic spycraft, and he’s been doing this longer than her, but it doesn’t feel that way at the moment.

“I’ll cooperate,” he concedes, trying to seem charming and suggestive, and not at all a little desperate.  
  
“That’s what you _always_ say,” she teases, then brushes her nose against his cheek. “And then…”

She doesn’t finish.  This has been going on long enough that they’ve both made mistakes.  Good intentions gone wrong trying to meet each other, only to discover that it doesn’t mean that extends beyond the two of them into their separate worlds.

“Do you think I should?” she say innocently.

“Cooperate?” he asks, swallows, then lets out a breath like he’s been holding it. “ _Yes_.”

“Try to keep it flirty?”  
  
“Maybe you're better at this than me?” he suggests, tugging her closer to him while whispering back in her ear.  
  
“Maybe,” she laughs brightly, like he told her a dirty secret.

“I'm spoiled,” he goes on, frowning in the moment, grabbing her a bit possessively. “Used to being on the same page.”  
  
“We still are,” she answers, her hand slipping down the inside of his jacket, casing him. “Although, our methods might vary.”

He deliberately leans in towards another couple swaying too close alongside them, so that she has to move her hand. They wait until they’re a safe distance away before continuing.  
  
“I had better luck with Talbot,” he admits.  
  
When he feels her shrug and ducks his face back to hers.  
  
“What kind of partner do you take me for? she asks, amused, holding his gaze, as he grips her waist, like they’re having a confrontation.

One hand slips over his chest, conciliatory, pausing over the scar where his heart is.  The other settles in the palm of his left hand.  
  
It's a light touch over his heart, at first, and then he feels a buzz.  
  
She slipped him something, during that distraction, he knows.  
  
“Unfair,” he tells her, a little agitated. He blinks because he knows his eyes have dilated.   
  
“Sorry,” she says, earnestly. “I've read your SHIELD file. _Phil_.”  She draws his name out and he has to remember to keep leading.

“You could warn me.”

“But I didn't,” she answers staring up into his blue eyes.  
  
“Why?”  
  
“I thought," she blinks, collecting herself. "We've been doing this dance long enough?”  
  
He stares back at her, his heart already racing, holding her hand in his, unsure. And then he feels her fingers tighten over his.

And so, he does what he’s supposed to do.  He kisses her, pressing his mouth against hers, softly, because it’s expected.  They've been playing this game for too long, like they'd never reach the end and maybe this is that moment.

But then she makes it go on. Longer and harder and deeper, and he finds himself trying to match her.  To say something in an embrace they’ve never been able to say with words.

He tries to just keep up.

It’s quite a performance, and people are watching them now.  He can see it out of the corner of his eye while she clenches tightly to the lapels of his tuxedo, holding him close to her, like it’s not enough, and then slowly lets him go, with a sly smile.  
  
“Goodnight, Phil,” she says, over her shoulder.  
  
Another dress. Long, and black, and intriguing like her. Everything in him wants to chase after her.

When he starts to feel dizzy, all he holds on to is that he’s so glad they don’t have to pretend anymore.

 

#

“Sleeping beauty awakes.”

He opens his eyes to see Mack leaning over him, and takes in his surroundings, noticing the scanner moving back and forth over his prosthetic hand.

“We’re still getting the data transfer,” Mack mentions, looking from the pad in his hand and up at the monitor readings. 

“She didn’t exactly poison you,” Simmons chimes in, appearing in his vision. “It’s a-“

“It’s in an SSR file,” he groans, sitting up. “Black Widow program, she told me.”

“Oh,” Simmons says with a grimace.  “She actually used that? On you?”

He doesn’t even reply to that, just narrows his eyes at the monitor to see what it is that she’s sent him.

The data is uploading quickly, but he can pick out the images and words. 

It’s evidence.  Of HYDRA in the US government, in world governments and how they’ve meddled in everything.  Playing both sides against the middle.

She’s been collecting this.  Waiting for that final, missing piece.

“You did good,” Mack tells him, with a chuckle, putting his hand on his shoulder.  “Some kiss.”

“Yeah, he did.”

Daisy’s standing at the entrance to the medbay and it all goes quiet.

“He’s good?” she asks, setting in motion towards Simmons.

“Daisy!  Yes,” she nods, happy to see her. “He’s at acceptable levels since the toxin wasn’t-“

She pauses while Daisy hugs her, and hugs back with a pleasant groan.

“I mean, you weren’t trying to _kill_ him.”

“No,” Daisy says, mirthfully, holding her gaze for a moment, then lifting her eyes to look at him again.

“It’s been a long night,” Mack says. “Just make sure that the data transfer happens? Unlike the last time-“

“Yes, sir,” Daisy answers.

“If this means you’re _back_ back-“ he continues, handing her the pad with a raised eyebrow. “Then you’re in charge.”

“Challenge accepted,” she grins, taking it from him and then holding it against her.

She waits until they’re alone and looks over the pad, then the monitor, and walks towards him. Sits down in the chair next to the bed.

“You okay?” she asks, putting down the pad on the bed and then digging her hands into her jacket pockets to set down her phone and access key on the nearby tray.

“Sure,” he smiles, leaning back against the pillows. “I can play the patsy.”

She looks down, licks at her lower lip for a moment, contemplatively, as her brow furrows.

“You’re…the only patsy,” she tells him, slowly, resting her hand on top of his.  “I think?”

“You had me at a disadvantage,” he says, with a broad smile.

“I know.”

“Because, if I’d _ever_ known you wanted to kiss me like that?”

She tries to be serious, but she just wants to laugh instead.

“I’m in trouble?” she admits, holding it back, raising her eyebrows at him.

“Oh, you’re in _big_ trouble,” he nods, putting his other hand over hers.

She sighs and smiles back up at him, his eyes shining back at her.

“I’ve never wanted trouble so much.”

 


End file.
